So we live in a ‘charming’ 120+ year old house. Despite doing a ton of work on it during the seven years we’ve owned it, it was still NO WHERE near ready to be put on the market – cosmetically. There’s nothing like going through your own house and trying to decide if you’d buy it all over again. Then, queue the pre-sale home inspection which highlighted some additional areas where some lovin’ was needed and we’ve got ourselves quite a handyman’s dream and seller’s nightmare on our hands. It probably would have been easier – and potentially less costly! – to knock it down and sell the land on which it sits. Haha.

Never mind. We pulled ourselves together, pretty much shipped our kids off every single weekend in July and got to it. I am quite certain there’s not a square foot of this house that has not been cleaned, updated or upgraded by us or our friendly neighborhood contractors. The most appalling part of the whole thing is that despite a full dumpster of junk and the ACRC carting away what seemed like an actual ton of gently used household items is that we still have a 10×10 storage space filled with ‘keepers’.

Over the next couple weeks, I jumped every time Kenny’s phone rang. He did, too. He was desperate for information. I am pretty sure his desperation for information was less for his own edification and more so I would stop asking him over 100 questions a day that he had no answers for.

We dangled in June. Literally drove each other crazy with speculation. ‘Are we moving? Are we not? What do you think the chances are that this is gonna happen? Come on. Really. What do you think? What does your gut say? We should start on the house just in case. Should we sign Gav up for Fall soccer? Grace for dance? What about school? Think they’ll start out here? We can’t make September happen, can we?’ Good, fun times. I tried to be patient. I think I was. I felt patient. Maybe Kenny will comment below whether I was or not. Hahah.

Ultimately, Kenny got a promotion that made going west coastal a good idea, and thankfully, my boss was supportive of me making the move and keeping my role.

An end of May call from an on-the-road Kenny started out innocently enough. You know, the usual ‘How are things? Everything ok? I miss you terribly and cannot wait to see your gorgeous face again.’ (Ok maybe that last part is a stretch – but it wouldn’t have been a bad thing to throw in given what was coming next.)

Kenny: So, uh, there’s an opportunity for me to move to Portland.

Me: OK…

Kenny: What do you think? Would you be into that?

Me: Sure…But if you don’t do it – do you still have a job? Is it an opportunity or a sure thing?

Kenny: Not sure. Details are sketchy. But basically, they are moving all the roles on my team back to headquarters.

Me: When?

Kenny: I think before September.

Good talk, right? Let’s move across the country…potentially sometime before the kids start school again…to a place you’ve never even visited. Maybe. I’ll let you know soon. In the meantime, just sit back and relax. Haha.